The Clark Sisters sang for Dick Robertson’s band in mid-1942 before going solo later that year. In early 1943, they joined Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, replacing the recently departed Pied Pipers. Dorsey renamed them the Sentimentalists, after his nickname, the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing. Critics at the time often compared them to the Pied Pipers in less-than-favorable ways. They remained with Dorsey until April 1946 when they left, with his blessing, to star in the bandleader’s Mutual radio sustainer program, Endorsed by Dorsey.
The sisters sang on a transcription disk for Enoch Light soon after leaving the band and recorded two sides solo on the MGM label in mid-1947. That same year they also began a professional relationship with singer Jack Smith, singing on his radio show and backing him on Capitol sessions through early 1950. They worked with Dorsey again in late 1947, recording several songs with the orchestra both under their own name and as the Sentimentalists before the American Federation of Musicians’ recording ban of 1948 came into effect. The sisters also recorded with Bob Hope on Capitol in late 1948, backing him on his movie tie-in version of the song “Buttons and Bows” and its B side.
In 1950, the sisters took a hiatus from show business to focus on family life. They emerged again in early 1958, signing with the Dot label and recording a nostalgic LP of swing tunes. They made a second such album the following year. In 1960, they signed with Coral and produced an interesting series of albums that mixed swing, modern jazz and turn-of-the-century songs, beginning with Beauty Shop Beat that year, which focused on barbershop quartet music, and an album in 1961 that remade songs from the 1890s. A third Coral album in 1962 celebrated the great singing groups of the 1940s.